


Factory Reset

by Threshie



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Castiel (Supernatural), Angels are like computers, Angst, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Heaven, M/M, Memory Loss, POV Sam Winchester, Podfic Welcome, spacing out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 07:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14374296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Threshie/pseuds/Threshie
Summary: Castiel has lived with Sam and Dean for years when his hold on his vessel starts to slip. Sam can see what Dean’s love blinds him to: Heaven is overriding Cas’s programming.





	Factory Reset

They found Cas out on the lawn, laying on his back and staring up at the sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, and the stars twinkled clearly above in an inky black sky. The dew that had gathered on the lawn had started to freeze over, and the air was so crisp that each breath sent a puff of steam into the night.

“Hey…” Dean stepped over to the angel’s side, his boots crunching softly in the stiffening ice on the grass. He knelt near Castiel, gently resting a hand on his shoulder. “Cas.” 

Hazy blue eyes turned to him, the angel’s expression empty and calm. He seemed like he was far away.

Dean ran a hand over his forehead, smoothing back his dark hair, and pressed a kiss there.

“C’mon, it’s cold out here.” He lifted one of Cas’s hands and laced their fingers, smiling. “Come in and sit on the couch with me, okay?”

Sam stayed near the door, training the flashlight for his brother and biting his lip. He could see what Dean couldn’t, or refused to. Cas was slipping away from them. Lately something was pulling the angel away from the simple life he’d led with them here for years now. 

After a few weeks of these drifting episodes, Sam was convinced that Heaven was calling Castiel home. As much as he cared for them, as sincerely as he said that he loved Dean, Cas was still an angel — and angels weren’t meant to be down on earth this long. Cas could rebel against what he was supposed to do, but not against what he was.

Sam had found plenty of lore that implied that angels were like computers. They were capable of being programmed, of getting glitches, and of having their memories wiped. Castiel’s time with them was so small in the grand scheme of things that Heaven might have overlooked it until now, but he was not operating the way he was supposed to. What if his love for Dean was considered a glitch, and Heaven was trying to factory reset him? Could they do that?

So far Cas hadn’t forgotten anything important. Sam was dreading the day that he didn’t remember their names, though. He already looked at them without recognition in his eyes sometimes, when he acknowledged that they were there at all. The drifting episodes were getting more and more frequent. Sam was afraid one day even Dean wouldn’t be enough to pull the angel back.

And Dean, Dean would deny it until his last breath, but he knew. Sam could see the heartbreak on his face every time Cas looked at him like he was a stranger. Without his angel, there might not even be anything Sam could do to stop him from a downward spiral. Dean couldn’t just stop loving Cas any more than Cas could stop being an angel. 

Maybe it was time someone stopped Heaven.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading my ficlet! I wrote this last year during NaNoWriMo, and it has just been sitting on my hard drive, so I figured I'd share it. I have a lot of ideas for this premise that could be expanded into a much longer fic, but need to revisit them later when I don't have so very many irons in the fire. Comments and kudos always appreciated!


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